A variety of sanitary napkins are known in the art for absorbing menstrual fluids during a female wearer's menstrual period to prevent soiling of the wearer's undergarment and/or overgarment. Sanitary napkins are typically constructed as multi-layered sheets of laminated absorbent material and are worn between the wearer's undergarment and genital area on the outside of the body. Sanitary napkins typically both absorb the menstrual flow and block flow of the menstrual fluids onto the wearer's clothing.
One of the drawbacks of typical conventional sanitary napkins is that the napkins fail to adequately prevent backflow of menstrual fluids from the rear edge of the napkin as the napkin is used by a wearer, particularly when the wearer sits on a surface. This frequently results in soiling of the wearer's undergarment and/or overgarment.
Various sanitary napkins or absorbent articles are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,241,714; 6,296,628; 6,348,047; 6,475,199; 6,471,682; 6,465,711; and 6,508,795.